GAME REPORT

Poland Complete Sweep Over Italy

Poland completed a two-game sweep of Italy in Group B with a 76-69 win over the Azzurre in Bologna on Saturday.

Behind 36-34 at half-time, the Polish blew out the Italians in the third quarter 26-8 as they improved to 4-1 in qualifying games for next year's EuroBasket Women in Riga, Latvia.

Italy dropped to 2-3.

All was going according to plan for Italy early on.

A Kathrin Ress jump shot with 1:31 to go in the first half left the Italians with a 36-30 lead but Poland scored the last two baskets of the second quarter to trail by just two.

Midway through the third quarter with the game tied at 44-44, Poland reeled off 16 consecutive points to take complete command.

Italy did outscore them 25-16 over the final 10 minutes but they had left themselves with too much work to do and crashed to a seven-point setback.

Agnieszka Bibrzycka had 18 points for Poland while Italy were led by Simona Ballardini's 13.

COACH QUOTES

Quotes Italy vs. Poland

Giampiero Ticchi:

"First of all I would like to congratulate Poland. We played a great first half, but then we had a mental blackout. This team is young and easily loses its confidence. When this happened we couldn't play anymore our aggressive basketball and we did a lost of mistakes - too many turnovers. Now we have one only goal: to win our last three games hoping to be the best third-placed team in the groups."

Angela Gianolla:

"We started very well, leading by 10 points, but because of some silly mistakes we closed the first half only two points ahead. In the third quarter Bibrzycka scored a lot of triples and we got confused. We are very sad, this was our great opportunity."

Krzysztof Koziorowicz, Poland coach:

"We were worried because Italy is a solid team and they played a good game in Gdansk. We knew it was the decisive game for us, I am happy because Bibrzycka scored the most important points of the game but her team-mates were important for the success in the first half. Now our position in the group is good but we have to play three more games and we must remain focused: our qualification is not guaranteed at all."

Agnieszka Bibrzycka, Poland player:

"I played a good game but the most important thing is that the team supported me and won it. We missed qualification to EuroBasket last time round and we can't fail this time. We played a better defense than in Gdansk; Italy are dangerous but after a tough game in Bosnia we won and now we can concentrate on the last three games."